The Russian Defense Ministry has published a video of the meeting between the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy and the sailors of the sunken cruiser Moskva

There is no sound at the beginning of the video where the crew numbers could have been announced.

In Sevastopol, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, and the command of the Black Sea Fleet met with the crew of the missile cruiser Moskva. The message about this was published by the Telegram channel of the Russian Defense Ministry and the Zvezda TV channel.

During the meeting, Yevmenov stated that “the traditions of the Guards missile cruiser Moskva will be carefully preserved and continued in the way that has always been accepted in the Navy.”

The department's press service and the TV channel also published a video from the meeting. The video on the Telegram channel lasts 26 seconds and has no sound. In the first part of the Zvezda video, the words of those present cannot be heard because of the noise, while in the second part, Yevmenov makes a statement, from which one can conclude that the cruiser's crew includes conscripts.

"The personnel of the cruiser Moskva are mainly at their base - the hero city of Sevastopol. Officers, warrant officers, and contract service personnel will continue to serve in the Navy. In accordance with the law, the personnel of the conscript service will be discharged from May to July and will leave for military registration," the admiral says.

However, the exact number of the ship's crew at the time of its sinking or the video recording, as well as whether there were any fatalities or injuries as a result of the incident, has not been reported.

As Novaya Gazeta. Evropa notes , in the first frames, where there is no sound or the words are unintelligible, the personnel is being paraded. During this procedure, the commander is required to report on the number of personnel, to report how many people are present in the ranks, how many have dropped out, including as a result of injury or death.

"Thus, the data on the number of surviving sailors of the cruiser Moskva remains unknown," the journalists concluded. In turn , The Insidercounted about 100 sailors in the video.

In addition, the first frames of the video show the cruiser commander Anton Kuprin, writes Novaya Gazeta. The day before, the official Telegram channel of the State Border Service of Ukraine, citing the Russian military department , announced his death. The Telegram channel "We Can Explain" also noted that the video does not feature the commander of the Black Sea Fleet Igor Osipov, who, according to Ukrainian media and Telegram channels, was arrested. There is no official confirmation of this information.

The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, sank while being towed during a storm, the Russian Defense Ministryreported on April 14. Before that, according to the agency's statements , a fire and ammunition explosion occurred on the ship for an as yet unspecified reason.

The Ukrainian side claimed that the fire on the cruiser occurred after it was attacked by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles (the plant producing them was bombed on April 15). The US adheres to the same version, an unnamed senior US official told Reuters.

It is unknown how many sailors were on board at the time of the incident. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, there may be up to 680 crew members on the ship. At the same time, in different years, Russian media reported that the cruiser's crew consisted of 416 or 510 people.

Russian military officials said the crew was evacuated to Black Sea Fleet ships in the area. A TASS source said the sailors were taken to Sevastopol. A farewell ceremony for the cruiser was held in the city on April 15. Journalists noticed a ribbon with the inscription "To the ship and sailors" on one of the funeral wreaths.